Complaint Review: USA Van Lines - Linden New Jersey

I filled out a free quote form online and started receiving calls. Although they were not the cheapest quote, I decided to go with USA Van Lines. A woman named Jennifer called me a couple times and she seemed very professional.

After going over all of my information I was quoted $1197 and a date was set for Monday 8/31/15. My fees would be broken up into 3 payments, 30% down on a credit card, 50% cash or money order when they picked it up, and the final 20% in cash or money order when it was dropped off.  I asked if I could just pay the whole amount on my card since it would be easier on me then traveling with cash. Jennifer stated they could not do this, it had to be this way. At this time $359 was charged on my Discover card. I was told I would receive a call on Sunday 8/30/15 at 10:30am to go over my inventory again and would be given a time for pick up.

Sunday 8/30/15, I did receive my phone call but it was at 2:30pm, not 10:30am as I was promised. We went over my inventory in which I had added 2 items I had forgotten about (my vacuum and papasan chair) in which I was quoted $1237.95. Jennifer also told me that I would receive a call back at 5:30pm with a time for pick up and I needed to stay near my phone. This phone call never came.

The following day, Monday 8/31/15, I moved all the boxes and furniture into one room since I was also taking a lot of items in my car with me and I did not want things to get mixed up. About 2:30pm I received a call from the driver stating they would be coming tomorrow (09/01/15). I told them this was unacceptable as I needed to be out of my apartment that morning. He stated he was sorry but they were very behind and because of this, this would pick up and deliver same day instead of the 1-3 days Jennifer quoted me. Although this was going to put me a little behind in leaving for Virginia, I was happy with being able to have my belongings delivered the same day. I was now told my time for pick up would be between 9 and 10am on 9/01/15.

Tuesday 9/01/15 around 11:30am I called the moving company since I still had no movers and had not heard from the company. My neighbor was on the phone with U-Haul trying to help me rent a truck with a lift to pull my car behind it. He was willing to help me pack my items on the rented U-Haul truck which was my biggest concern since I needed to be out of my apartment that day. I would figure out how to get everything into my apartment in Virginia when I got there, not knowing anyone there of course was going to be an issue but I couldn’t deal with that extra stress at the moment.

I called Jennifer’s extension and asked to speak with the manager. I was transferred and never told his name, he just answered the phone “hello”.  I asked if he was the manager, he stated yes, and I began to tell them of the no show the prior day and how they were very late on this date. Before I could say I wanted to cancel my reservation he cut me off and transferred me to dispatch. I began to tell her the story and she put me on hold where I waited for almost 10 minutes when the moving truck finally pulled up. There were 3 movers, only one spoke English and he had an attitude with me from the moment he got out of the truck. He walked into my apartment and began telling me all my items would not fit on the truck and I needed to get rid of stuff. Everything I told Jennifer about was all that was going. He began to tell me my boxes were too large and he was going to charge me extra and he was also going to charge me more for my items. He stated they had to walk too far from the truck to the apartment and that it was more than 8 stairs up to my apartment and he had to charge me extra for this as well. Jennifer told me anything above a second floor would be an extra charge, I lived on the 2^nd floor. There was no discussion over stair count (I had 12 stairs). I did not see this stated anywhere in the contract I signed on line, the movers had different paper work. Of course I said I was going to call the company back and complain because I was not want to pay any more money when I was not told about any of these extra charges he was now telling me I was going to have to pay. He asked me not to call and said he would not charge me. He then asked me to give him a larger tip since he wasn’t going to charge me.

Over the next 5 hours I saw how unprofessional these movers were. They were arguing with each other, throwing my items down the stairs, complaining, taking constant smoke breaks, playing games on their phones, and taking personal phone calls. I was on a time crunch and was extremely stressed out with how long they were taking. I needed to clean the apartment and get my car packed! I decided to start packing up my car about 2 hours into the movers being there. When I walked outside I saw all my belongings all over the ground. There was so many of my belongings in the walkway at the bottom of my stairs I could barely get to the sidewalk. While walking to my car, I saw the truck with more of my items laying on the side of the road. Everything was packed so I’m not sure why it was taking them so long! All they needed to do was get everything out of the apartment and onto a truck. As I was packing my car, they kept coming over grabbing my items from my hands and trying to help which I appreciated but I really needed them to pack the moving truck so I could leave! I needed to drive down to Virginia and sign my new lease by 5pm!

During this time the head mover (I believe his name was David) began telling me I should throw away some of my furniture because it was “crap” and he did not have room for it. He told me I could just replace it once I moved but kept stressing he did not have room and did not know what to do. At this point I told him he was going to have to figure it out. It was all on the list I gave Jennifer so they were well aware of how much room that was needed for my items.

While going through the paper work, it stated nothing would be moved out of the apartment until I was given a direct quote of how much I owed. The exact amount was never discussed until after they were completely done moving everything out of the house. David gave me an amount well over $1700! I began arguing with him since my estimated amount was about $1200. Where was he getting all this extra money coming from? The next amount he told me was $1241 and signed the paperwork. I began to give him the cash, then remembered I had already paid $359. He stated the full amount was $1600 and with the deposit the amount was now $1241. With all the stress and confusion I paid the full amount (instead of the 50% as stated from Jennifer and paying the 20% at drop off). It was then I noticed he wrote the delivery date as ASAP. He was the driver I spoke to the prior day that told me he would pick up and deliver the same day. Since it was now 4:30pm, too late to sign my new lease, he told me he would deliver it the next day.

After they left my apartment was completely trashed. There was garbage everywhere, rolls of packing tape everywhere, and the bathroom was completely soaked and filthy. I began taking pictures to document all of this. I cleaned my apartment, finished packing the car and stayed at my brother’s house that night since it was too late to drive 5-6 hours to my destination (it was about 8pm).

In the next few days I had not heard from dispatch with a time for my delivery. I called consistently every day, leaving messages with no returned calls from the company. Jennifer did not have answers for me and dispatch told me they did not know where the truck was and that the driver would call me when he would deliver. When asking to speak with the manager, he would just yell over me or transfer me to dispatch, would also couldn’t help me.

Saturday 9/05/15 I called the company all day, no one was responding, answering the calls, this included dispatch who is supposed to be available 24/7 as stated everywhere in emails and all my paperwork. I never got ahold of anyone! I was extremely upset considering the driver promised me same/next day service and it’s been 4 days and I had absolutely no answers.

On Sunday 9/06/15 I began calling again. I finally got ahold of Jennifer and she was extremely snotty with me. She told me the company is closed on Saturdays (which makes no sense for a moving company to be closed on a Saturday!) when I told her about trying to contact dispatch and she had no answer for me. She told me there was nothing else she could do for me and I did not have to keep contacting her that I needed to contact dispatch and she gave me the number again for dispatch.

Monday 9/07/15 I finally received a call from dispatch and was told I would have my delivery on tues 9/08/15 in the afternoon or at the latest wed 9/09/15 in the morning. These days came and went and finally Wednesday 9/09/15 I received a call about 1 or 2pm stating the truck would be there around 5pm. I never heard back from anyone this day until 9pm Wednesday 9/09/15 telling me he could deliver in about 2 hours! This would have been about 11pm if he was on time. As much as I wanted my belongings, especially my bed since I had been sleeping on a hard wood floor for a week, I declined. I live in an apartment complex and cannot disturb my neighbors that late at night. I told him I needed my items first thing in the morning, in which he agreed.

I contacted the driver in the morning and he told me he would arrive about 4:30pm. I told him this was unacceptable and that I need my things this morning like we agreed upon. He informed me that he mixed me up with another customer and should arrive in about 40 minutes. When he did arrive, he called me again and asked me to come outside. When I got downstairs I notice he is driving an 18 wheeler and cannot get it into the complex and to my apartment. I had no idea my items would be taken off of 1 truck and put on a larger truck. This information was never disclosed to me and of course was very upsetting. He told me he was going to have to charge me another $200 to carry my items from the truck and to my apartment. As a second option, he told me he could get shuttle service which included me renting a U-Haul and they will pack the U-Haul and drive it across the parking lot and unload the items into my apartment. I immediately contacted USA Van Lines and asked to speak to a manager. It was a female who stated she was the manager (I had dealt with a male manager the few times I had called before). I explained the situation and she basically told me it was in the contract and I needed to pay the money or I was not going to get my belongings. I explained to her that I was never informed my items were going to be put on another truck which was not going to fit into my complex and she did not seem to care. Paying the extra money was the only option to receive my delivery. I called my best friend who has worked as a manager in customer service for many years for his advice. He asked for the company phone number since he had heard everything this company has done to me from the beginning. He called me back about a half hour later and informed me to call the police and tell them everything that happened and have the police make the movers give me my things back.

When I hung up the phone I mentioned this to the driver and his whole demeanor changed. He informed me that no one was holding his things. He said he would not charge me the $200 charge but that the company wanted to charge me. He also stated the U-Haul was just a recommendation and would just help them to move the items easier. He said they would start unloading but I would need to help. At this point I did not care about helping, I just wanted my belongings back! I had been promised this delivery over a week ago and it was finally here and I had to fight to get it back? I drove my car over to the truck, did all the inventory with them while I loaded boxes and other items into my car. Once my car was filled, I drove over to my apartment and unloaded all the boxes myself, carrying everything into my apartment. I did this at least 5 times while they put my furniture on dollies and pulled it across the parking lot and brought it into my apartment.

This took us (myself and 2 movers) less than 2 hours to do all of this. The driver put together my TV stand and my table since the other movers took these items apart, the other mover was nowhere to be found during this time.

My large 5 shelf bookshelf was completely destroyed and was not salvageable, it is now in the dumpster, I was missing screws for my TV stand (well screws were attached but they were not the correct screws, and my $200 carpet cleaner was broken and missing pieces. Some of my dishes were broken in half and chipped badly and my couch leg is broken. I did report on some of this while the movers were still here but as I was unpacking and moving furniture around, I found many other damaged items.

Lastly I need to add that it’s a good thing I wasn’t working at this time. I will be starting a new job, had no clothing and I sat around for many days waiting for this company to pick up and to deliver my items when they did not come on promised days. I would have kept many more items with me if I knew this would be over a week more than promised. The customer service was horrendous and they just do not care about their customers. Unfortunately after all this happened I went onto the internet and googled reviews. They have been ripping off customers for some time now. Their rating on BBB was an F and they just do not care. It is horrible that they are doing this to consumers and I hope for a full refund and an additional amount of money for un-necessary stress, replacement of items, and just lack of consideration for consumers and their belongings.